The VALLEY GIRL Show

Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg (l.) interviewed by host, Jesse Draper December 2011

I never would've learned of Jesse Draper, a former Nickelodeon actress, if I wasn't reading up on Sheryl Sandberg. I am not a fan, or an advocate of Nickelodeon. It may be good for white and privileged children, but it wrecks havoc upon Black children. Little good comes from that influence has been my observation. But, that aside I am attracted to the women who push and succeed in business, and white women, and children of color who make their marks in the business world are of interest to me in part because I was not geared towards business acumen, and because something deep within me believes the integrity of business will be stirred, shifted, and will come alive through women and the next generation of children entrepreneurs.

Growing up in the worlds I did left me uninformed and uninterested in corporate America until I landed in a moderately successful and highly creative band, and the conservative elements of the US inserted their proverbial foot up the tail end of creative progression and began to cut funding for the arts. Pushing our band from the local Washington DC scene to the national college circuit proved our ineptness in business, and revealed our profound ignorance of what is fundamental to business development: sales.

There is a saying amongst Black business men I should not say in public, but Jesse Draper embodies the reason for the saying. Her father is a wealthy and influential venture capitalist. With her father as an example, her mentor, and $50,000 of her own money she invested in the development of her Internet series, The Valley Girl Show, in 2008.

She plays a ditzy dumb blond character on her show interviewing prominent business people, many of whom are connected to her father, Timothy C. Draper, for a tiny core audience of 15,000 focused in Silicon Valley. In 2011 she expanded her enterprise from her website (valleygirl.tv) to television screens in restaurants like Taco Bell, and licensed her show to other websites like Glam.com.

This is important to notice. She has been able to get powerful white people into her studio like Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Understand the significance of this. Ms. Draper is 29 years old, white and politically connected by her father to the highest offices in the country, and thus the globe with an initial and tiny core audience, a vision of a book series, and by 2011 was not yet making a profit to support her staff, and self.

Given these facts about one woman why is relationship important?

Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 

5.30.13

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