Food Deserts: Maury Blackman Of Premise Data On How They Are Helping To Address The Problem of People Having Limited Access to Healthy & Affordable Food Options
Revolutionizing an industry can’t be done alone. It takes unwavering teamwork. So, the more someone gives to our company, the more the company gives back to them.
In many parts of the United States, there is a crisis caused by people having limited access to healthy & affordable food options. This in turn is creating a host of health and social problems. What exactly is a food desert? What causes a food desert? What are the secondary and tertiary problems that are created by a food desert? How can this problem be solved? Who are the leaders helping to address this crisis?
In this interview series, called “Food Deserts: How We Are Helping To Address The Problem of People Having Limited Access to Healthy & Affordable Food Options” we are talking to business leaders and non-profit leaders who can share the initiatives they are leading to address and solve the problem of food deserts.
As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Maury Blackman.
Maury Blackman has led high-growth tech companies for more than 25 years. In 2017, Maury took the helm at Premise Data. Premise owns the broadest and most sophisticated platform that blends machine learning with human intelligence, making it possible to gather and analyze real-time data from a trusted global network. The premise was recognized as one of Deloitte’s Fast 500 for 2020.
Before Premise, Maury was CEO of Accela, a civic-tech startup. In 2016, EY awarded him the prestigious Northern California Entrepreneur of the Year award for his work as Accela’s Chairman & CEO. Accela was sold to Berkshire Partners in 2017.
Following graduation from the University of Houston, Maury served as a commissioned field artillery officer in the United States Army.
He is an active investor, board member, and advisor to many notable technology companies.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
Back in 2018, after leading Accela for more than 15 years, I made my next move: seriously getting into investing. I signed on as a limited partner with the Urban Innovation Fund, a spinoff of the nonprofit investor Tumml, and began working as an investor on my own as well. During that time, I invested in GovList, which offers proposal and bid-writing software requests to help government agencies prune through procurement faster; Forensic Logic, which has built a searchable cross-agency network of police department information and DroneDeploy, which makes drone-mapping software. In 2017, my former company Accela went through a buyout. I felt like, from a gov tech standpoint, (that deal) validated the space. I went from being just an entrepreneur in that space ten years ago as CEO, really just trying to get people’s attention about — ‘Hey, something is happening here, and it’s exciting,’ and nobody was really interested. And now, you can appreciate that the gov tech space is taking off, and people are excited about investing in it. Every week, I get two to three phone calls from people asking my advice about opportunities they’re working on to put money into government technology. And that is a tremendous change from where we were ten years ago, even five years ago.
Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Are there takeaways or lessons that others can learn from that?
My tipping point happened early in my career when I spent the first five years obsessed with working. I treated my hard work the way I treated my investments, and I knew I would see the payoff in the future. Ultimately, I did. In 2016 EY awarded me prestigious Northern California’s Entrepreneur of the Year for my work as Accela’s Chairman & CEO.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person to whom you are grateful who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I always look back to my college professor and thesis advisor. I’m a political scientist with a focus on democratic theory. My professor taught me to think critically and “sell” my ideas both in writing and verbally. Selling ideas requires us to be able to anticipate objections and develop strategies to overcome them. I can’t imagine being successful without critical thought and presentation.
I am incredibly grateful for my family throughout my entire journey in corporate America. They keep me motivated and grounded and help me not lose sight of what is truly important in life.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
- Courage- It takes as much strength to not rush carelessly into the unknown as it does to not sit back in fear. We take risks and enter uncharted territory because we know precisely when to do it.
- Loyalty- All for one and one for all. Revolutionizing an industry can’t be done alone. It takes unwavering teamwork. So, the more someone gives to our company, the more the company gives back to them.
- Excellence-Mediocrity is not an option. Whether you’re leading a department or just starting out, you deliver the highest quality of work, day-in day-out, with the aim of becoming the standard-bearer for your role.
I believe in these character traits so deeply that they became embedded into Premise’s core values.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Keep moving forward!! I did my first Ironman in 2005. I was very nervous. My coach at the time told me, “listen, this will be a long day. No matter who you are, there will always be adversity. Just keep moving forward no matter what happens around you. You can look back later but in the race, just keep inching towards the finish line.” I finished. There were struggles, but the reward was amazing. In life and business, I set goals for myself, and every day just keep inching forward. It works!!
Can you share something about your work that makes you most proud? Is there a particular story or incident that you found most uplifting?
I am incredibly proud to have a voice of leadership for organizations I deeply respect. Being able to have an impact on such a large number of corporations is both empowering and uplifting. In the private sector, you can wow people with fancy technology and show them how it will be a competitive advantage, and governments don’t necessarily think that way.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about Food Deserts. I know this is intuitive to you, but it will be helpful to expressly articulate this for our readers. Can you please tell us what exactly a food desert is? Does it mean there are places in the US where you can’t buy food?
Premise’s data includes sentiment and observational data to map quality of life over time globally. The Data is structured around five core pillars covering human and economic development: institutions, social issues, basic services, the economy and consumer habits, including capturing food deserts. Through observational data tasks, Premise contributors map staple goods pricing and food markets.
Can you help explain a few of the social consequences that arise from food deserts? What are the secondary and tertiary problems that are created by a food desert?
Premise has unique learnings regarding the current state of food deserts in America:
As of May 2020, we have a running basic food security index with 8,360 unique responses and 20,185 responses total. We can provide you a monthly view as well but here is an overview:
- Over the past month, which category best describes how your household got food?
- 56% purchased their food at grocery stores.
- 20% purchased their food at local markets.
- Over the past month, which category best describes how often your household got food from your preferred food source?
- 35% go weekly.
- 31% go multiple times per week.
- 15%multiple times per month.
- Over the past month, which category best describes how long it took for you or someone in your household to travel to your preferred place to shop for food?
- 50% said less than 15 minutes.
- 31% said more than 15 minutes but less than 30 minutes.
- 13% said more than 30 minutes but less than an hour.
- 3% said more than 1 hour but less than 2 hours.
- Over the past year, 15% say their access to nutritious food decreased.
- 31.5% of people responded “yes” to “In the past month, did you use food aid vouchers to purchase food from local stores, markets, or vendors.
Can you describe to our readers how your work is making an impact to address this crisis? Can you share some of the initiatives you are leading to help correct this issue?
Premise designed these global index categories to be modeled after the 17 SDGs. Goal two of the 17 SDGs reads “End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture”. Premise’s data includes sentiment and observational data to map quality of life over time globally. The data is structured around five core pillars covering human and economic development: institutions, social issues, basic services, the economy and consumer habits. Through observational data tasks, Premise contributors map facilities that provide basic services, such as health clinics and pharmacies, and environmental indicators of economic opportunity and quality of life, including ATMs, staple goods pricing and food markets, recreational spaces, community cleanliness and others.
Are there other leaders or organizations who have done good work to address food deserts? Can you tell us what they have done? What specifically impresses you about their work? Perhaps we can reach out to them to include them in this series.
The Food Empowerment Project, which seeks to create a more just and sustainable world by recognizing the power of one’s food choices, has done good work to address food deserts. They encourage healthy food choices that reflect a more compassionate society by spotlighting the abuse of animals on farms, the depletion of natural resources, unfair working conditions for produce workers, and the unavailability of healthy foods in low-income areas. They envision a food system with equitable access to healthy, sustaining food for all communities.
If you had the power to influence legislation, are there laws that you would like to see introduced that might help you in your work?
If I had the power to influence legislation, I would advocate for more H1-B visas for tech workers. There’s a tech talent shortage, and it’s challenging to compete with big tech companies for engineering and product expertise.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
We are a country of immigrants. We opened our doors to the world and brought in some of the most ambitious and talented people on the planet. I feel we have lost our way. We need to reform our immigration program from top to bottom. We need to actively recruit the best and brightest to come here to learn and become innovators to keep us ahead in the global economy.
Is there a person in the world, or in the U.S. with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
I would love to meet with Cathie Wood, the ARK innovation fund founder. I think she’s the most thoughtful and courageous investor of our time.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Become a premise contributor and read our blog!
This was very meaningful, thank you so much, and we wish you only continued success.
Food Deserts: Maury Blackman Of Premise Data On How They Are Helping To Address The Problem of… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.