Rose Adkins Hulse is a CEO and founder in her late thirties. She grew up in Santa Monica, California, and now lives in London, with her husband, two daughters, and their dog. She is the textbook definition of successful.
Yet her arguably privileged position has not come without years of struggle and hard graft.
“I always got no,” she says, “ before I even opened up my mouth it was always a no. I had to learn really quickly how to turn those into a yes.”
She has spent her career at The Hollywood Reporter, NBC Universal, The Sundance Institute – working in sales, marketing and production. Eight years ago she founded her own brand, The Adkins Group, which spawned her current passion project ScreenHits, a genius app that allows subscribers to integrate all their streaming platforms from Netflix to Britbox on one app.
“I actually never wanted to start a company, I never wanted that stress, ever,” she says, detailing how her original dream (how very California of her) was to be an actress: “But there just weren’t the roles for me.”
What she knew she did want to be, however, was successful.
“I knew that from a very young age,” she says, “ I wanted to be a VP or something. But then I saw a gap in the market and jumped for it. That’s how we have ScreenHits.”
There is an unspoken barrier which threads its way through our discussion. Rose’s assertion that there wouldn’t be the roles for her in Hollywood, that she was bombarded with inexplicable barriers during her career.
Her race.
“I grew up in Santa Monica so there were not a lot of people who looked like me,” she explains, “ My parents always instilled in me that I should never think anything was because of the way I look. So I started to think; OK well what is it about me then?”
“I internalised that a lot growing up. I never attributed it to the colour of my skin, I never attributed it to my background. I literally thought; well what is it about my personality that makes people not want to support or help me? I just made myself better at everything. I studied harder, I was nicer- I did everything harder.”
It’s a well-established, if depressing truism, that people of colour half to work twice as hard to get half as much. Rose was embodying this, perhaps without even realising it.
The resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement this summer, after the tragic death of George Floyd, was a wake up call for everyone- even Rose.
“I just took my parents advice my whole life and thought; well whatever I want in life I can get it; I just have to find a way. I never really stopped to think – wow are all these Venture Capitalists just saying no to funding because I don’t look the way they expect a CEO or founder to look?” she asks, “I looked back at when I was pitching and people said ‘we would never take a project like yours’ and then they took my competitors? I hate to say it, but perhaps there was some unconscious racism going on that maybe even they didn’t recognise. It makes me feel now – maybe it had nothing to do with me after all!”
After all, the depressing reality is that only 1% of venture capitalist funding goes towards minority owned business, and even less than that to minority-owned female businesses. This was the climate in which Rose was attempting to raise funding for her company.
Yet we are now in a new climate of awareness surrounding these issues. Since Black Lives Matter; it’s been impossible for people to ignore the fact that this happens everyday, it’s also heightened understanding of unconscious bias.
“This latest movement has made people who maybe never thought they were racist, turn around and think wow how is it possible for anyone to think this is OK for an unarmed man like George Floyd to be killed in such a disposable manner? That is insane and unacceptable,” says Rose, “That has made people think, what have I done to contribute to this problem? It’s definitely pushing people to realise that people are all unconsciously prejudiced. I think we can’t make excuses anymore.”
Tackling unconscious prejudice; the kind that quietly, often unnoticed, influences hiring and yes – funding – decisions, is a complicated process. In the states, the issue was historically dealt with by ‘affirmative action’ – actively hiring diversely.
“A lot of people of colour I knew at university actually felt offended by it,” she says, “I felt that I had always worked hard and earned my place and I never wanted anyone to look at me and think I only got my place because of the colour of my skin. But when I now look at it; I realise it’s because the people who were qualified; just weren’t getting those positions.”
Rose believes this wrong can only be addressed by levelling the playing field of opportunity; that means equal access to a good education, to internships.
“The way certain systems work right now is just setting people up to fail, instead of levelling out the playing field earlier on- especially with scholarships and internships available to all,’ she proposes, “That way everyone has a chance at getting a job. That’s all people want; nobody wants handouts. Nobody wants pity, they just want opportunity.”
Rose has hope that this year’s surge of racial justice awareness will really push the needle forward- towards actual systemic change and a raised consciousness of these issues which so often are allowed to fester unchecked. She says she has had companies which previously turned her down for funding many years ago, contact her to understand what happened.
“BLM has made a lot of CEOS and businesses say; hang on, why was this company overlooked/why was this person overlooked?” she says, “There are some people that are throwing money at the problem and there are others who are trying to fix the problem. These are the ones who are reassessing everything based on the product; not on the colour skin of the person at the helm of that product.”
And if she were to give advice to a woman of colour starting out in her business today?
“I would tell them that there’s always a solution” she says, “There is always a way.”
Then off she goes, to enjoy the success she worked twice as hard for.
[b]ScreenHits TV app allows subscribers to integrate the leading streaming platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Britbox, BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, Kidoodle, Eurosport and more onto one app. Now available via desktop and soon to be available via Samsung/LG Plus Smart TVs, Amazon Fire TV Stick, Roku Stick, Apple Store, Google Chromecast, iOS and Android.www.screenhitstv.com
