Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Serge Amouzou. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Serge, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

When I started Datatrixs four years ago, three main problems were at the core of it, and I personally experienced the first one:

1. Entrepreneurs use spreadsheets all the time, but most are not good at it. The process of building a financial model—let alone having decision-ready data once the business is up and running—is tedious.

2. Product managers in medium enterprises must present financials to management to win approval for new products. Each manager formats their financials differently, leading to chaotic collaboration across sales, marketing, product, R&D, and finance teams.

3. Small businesses (e.g., bakeries) struggle with capital allocation. After hours in a spreadsheet, confirming where investment is needed most hinges on questioning the same assumptions repeatedly.

These Problems Shaped My Perspective:

If we can centralize all company finances, we can build a massive business.

Imagine a platform where a user inputs data and instantly gets breakeven analysis, burn rate, and capital requirement charts, alongside industry benchmarking and scenario modeling.

What if a system could connect to your bank accounts and customer data and recommend optimal marketing, sales, and product investments to maximize engagement and revenue?

Fast Forward to Today

We’ve made huge strides in this space. Users can now forecast what they want with a simple prompt. We’ve also developed AI-powered recommendations with explanations—akin to AI agents performing specialized financial functions.

Serge, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m Serge Amouzou, a serial entrepreneur dedicated to transforming financial analytics through AI. As the founder of Datatrixs, I’m on a mission to help businesses—especially entrepreneurs—gain better financial insights and make smarter decisions.

My journey into this space started with a personal struggle. While running a hardware and software business, I faced challenges navigating complex financial metrics. The lack of decision-ready data nearly led to a major financial loss, and I realized that many entrepreneurs rely heavily on spreadsheets but often struggle with financial modeling. Seeing the critical role CPAs and financial professionals play, I set out to build Datatrixs—a platform designed to simplify financial workflows, making insights more accessible, actionable, and AI-driven.

Before Datatrixs, I founded Delect, a FinTech company that helped restaurants enhance customer engagement through mobile technology. That experience gave me a deep understanding of how technology can drive business success, and it also earned me the BBJ CEO of the Year Award in 2017.

Today, I’m focused on bridging the gap between AI, automation, and financial decision-making. My goal is to help businesses move beyond spreadsheets and gain real-time insights so they can scale with confidence. With Datatrixs, I’m building a future where businesses can harness AI-driven analytics to unlock smarter, faster, and more strategic business decisions.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

From the early days of building my first startup, I talked to 130+ restaurant owners, managers, and waiters by walking door-to-door in DC.

Some would think this is crazy, and maybe it was—but I wanted to get it right. I wanted to learn as much as I possibly could by gathering data from my potential customers.

By the end, I gathered so much information, like how mobile payments wouldn’t be possible unless the restaurant had a system that improved their efficiency.

All those insights combined turned into the product we built—a platform that enabled restaurants to improve efficiency and, in turn, allowed consumers to transact easily, helping service workers earn more income. Think about why you now see that default 20% tip as the starting percentage when signing digital tabs. Service workers work incredibly hard and deserve good pay—the original gig economy!

Despite it all, we never could find backers to help us take it off the ground. As an immigrant, I later learned it was due to systemic racism (not something you want to hear, but it was true).

Nevertheless, I believe the U.S. is still the best country in the world to build innovative products and solve big problems.

Today, I’m trying again—taking the same relentless approach to learning, building, and solving real problems. Just as I walked door-to-door to understand restaurant owners, I’m now deeply immersed in financial analytics, working to empower businesses with AI-driven insights. The challenges remain, but so does my belief that persistence, innovation, and a deep understanding of customer needs can create lasting impact.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Unlike most startup founders, underrepresented founders face unique and often far greater challenges. I won’t sugarcoat it with generic startup advice that gets regurgitated across the ecosystem. Instead, I’ve been fortunate to connect with angel investors who believed in our company by staying true to myself.

What I mean by that is I openly share the real obstacles that hindered my success in a previous venture. Some of those challenges resonated with people who didn’t want to be on the wrong side of the system. It didn’t happen overnight, but by being authentic, I was able to build relationships with people who not only supported what I was doing but eventually invested in it.

Many underrepresented founders avoid discussing race, but I believe that as an entrepreneur, you have to identify what’s holding you back from reaching the next step. If race is one of those obstacles, then it is what it is—and addressing it head-on is necessary. This authenticity has been invaluable to me.

We’ve raised nearly $400K, but I firmly believe we should—and need to—raise more. At the same time, I won’t ignore the reality that discrimination has played a major role in why we haven’t reached our $2M funding goal.

That said, for folks who are contemplating starting something in the entrepreneurial and venture space, and after nearly a decade in the space, I’ve learned that there are four key paths for underrepresented founders to successfully raise $1M+ funding rounds.

Path 1 is A Non-Black Founder Pulls You In as a Cofounder
It doesn’t matter how many cofounders there are, as long as you’re not at the front of the fundraise. The non-Black founder raises millions for the company, and you’re along for the ride. When you’re ready to strike on your own, you’ll have plenty to brag about—“part of a founding team that raised $20 million, $40 million,” whatever the number is. If you’ve had an exit, even better. Even if you only had a tiny equity percentage, the bragging rights will be far more valuable than any windfall you might have had at this point.

Path 2 is Joining a Venture Studio
You probably shouldn’t go in hot with an idea already in mind. Be open-minded about the idea they might assign you. Right now, there is high sympathy for Black founders starting in the gig/creator economy (anything wealth-gap closing) or healthcare (expanded in path 3 below). Anything else, and you might be considered outside the bounds, making it tough to raise money. Here, you offer help, collaborate, and develop an idea together. You become the CEO/cofounder to lead an idea, and the funding follows. Best to work with them to pick something together.

Path 3 is Raising During or After #BLM, Focused on Gig/Creator Economy or Healthcare
Anything outside of these two themes, and you become too exoteric for investors. Investors have had a heightened focus on these areas post-#BLM, so aligning with these themes increases your chances.

Path 4 is Start with a Non-Black Cofounder/CEO from Day One
If you weren’t lucky to follow paths 1, 2, or 3, you need to be strategic and seek out a non-Black cofounder right away. Even if you aren’t heavily visible in front of investors, you’ll still be building an amazing company and creating generational wealth for yourself and your family.

That’s what I’ve seen. The minuscule percentage that raised significant rounds without following one of these four paths are truly edge cases. They are the unicorns of the Black founders raising colossal amounts of funding—you rarely see them.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://datatrixs.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amouzou.serge?igsh=MWpzbmlnY2RlOWV5NQ==
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/datatrixs/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/sergeamouzou
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@sergeamouzou3400
• Other: https://sergeamouzou.com/

Image Credits
The photo with Cina Lawson, Togolese Minister of Digital Economy and Transformation was taken at a private event hosted by Flourish Ventures and is shared for informational purposes only. The appearance of any government official in this image does not imply endorsement, affiliation, or sponsorship of Datatrixs.