Kevin Hart’s Gran Coramino Tequila has officially reached a new milestone. According to a press release shared with AFROTECH™, since its inception in 2022, the ultra-premium tequila company has provided more than $1 million in grant funding to over 100 Black and Latinx small-business owners and entrepreneurs through its Coramino Fund. The fund, powered by the company founded by Hart and 11th-generation tequila maker Juan Domingo Beckmann, has made giving back to the community its main priority from the very beginning, honoring its “vision to celebrate life’s hard-earned moments” by donating $1 from every bottle sold to support underrepresented entrepreneurs in the United States and Mexico. “As an entrepreneur myself, I’ve seen how early financial support can impact the long-term success of the business,” Hart said in a statement. “The Coramino Fund was created to provide support to some of the hardest working people out there — entrepreneurs and small business owners.”   View this...

He made his mark in rap, now Xzibit is looking to do the same in a new industry. The “Get Your Walk On” artist, born Alvin Nathaniel Joiner, will be scaling his interest in the cannabis industry. In 2023, he launched the “Lasagna Ganja” podcast in collaboration with co-host Tammy “The Cannabis Cutie” Pettigrew, CNN reports. The purpose of the podcast was to remove the stigma associated with cannabis use and to educate listeners. When speaking on the overarching goal of stewarding these conversations, he said in an interview on “Beyond the Red Carpet with Ny MaGee,” “I’ve seen the music industry go from millions to a billion-dollar industry. And I’ve also seen cannabis, you know, take on the same journey that maybe alcohol did after prohibition. And the misinformation that can lead us to continue to be left out of things is something that I want to combat. So when I say us, I mean people of color, people who have been incarcerated for cannabis, and now as it turns into this...

Founder Mateus Chipa wants the Black community to be more involved in space exploration. According to a Scripps News report of the 360 astronauts enlisted with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), just 18 had been Black astronauts as of Feb 5, 2024. For Chipa, he believed that to increase representation and empowerment it would be necessary for an influential Black entrepreneur to launch a company to break down barriers. According to his website, he waited eight years for Black leaders to step forward. In frustration after that time had passed, he decided to take matters into his own hands and established Theby Space Services (TSS) , a Black-owned private rocket company. “TSS came in a place of a lot of frustration, a lot of accountability and responsibility…For the last 10 years, I’ve been frustrated because I haven’t seen any Black nation or individual talking about going in a space,” Chipa said in a video shared on YouTube. “I’ve been asking myself why? Why...

Robin and Andrea McBride have done what most would consider unimaginable within the wine industry, but for them, like most big moments in their lives… every step of the process has been pretty kismet, according to Robin. In 2005, the McBride sisters started their wine journey when they began importing grapes from New Zealand (called Aotearoa by the indigenous Maori people) . By 2009, they began to cultivate juices together, and before they knew it, in 2017, the sisters began producing wine straight from their respective homes in Monterey, CA, and New Zealand under the McBride Sisters Collection label that they are known for today. When recalling what makes her most proud of this journey, Robin honed in on their initial vision and mission for entering the wine industry, and that was “changing the perception of wine being elitist and exclusive.”

Jerry Rice’s daughter Jaqui Rice Gold and the NFL Hall of Famer share more than being immediate family. The father-daughter duo is behind energy drink company G.O.A.T. Fuel, a venture founded alongside Jaqui’s husband, Trevion Gold, who serves as chief brand officer. The company distinguishes itself by incorporating adaptogens into beverages, such as the fusion of cordyceps mushrooms. According to WebMD, cordyceps helps improve energy, strength, immunity, and kidney function. The fungi’s health benefits initially attracted Jaqui to enter the beverage industry while working on a beauty tech startup in 2018. At the time, caffeine became a go-to drink for Jaqui and Trevion. However, its consumption led them to experience the adverse effects of some drinks, like feeling the “jitters” and eventually a decline in energy. “We just started talking as a family. I called my dad because he was a beverage investor. He had invested in CytoSport and Muscle Milk decades ago. We were telling him...

If you’re a burgeoning business owner or hopeful entrepreneur, chances are you’re familiar with ABC’s “Shark Tank.” Premiering in 2009, the show’s premise revolves around aspiring entrepreneurs pitching their products or business ideas to a panel of potential investors, known as “sharks.” Made up of successful business moguls including Mark Cuban and Kevin O’Leary, these seasoned vets have the power to make some big dreams come true, as contestants plead for investment funds in exchange for equity in their companies. The show has been the force behind some of the industry’s most coveted products, from the Squatty Potty to the Scrub Daddy. Some products that don’t secure a deal on the show still manage to make traction, including Melissa Butler’s inclusive cosmetic brand , The Lip Bar. But what happened to The Lip Bar after “Shark Tank?” Here’s what we know. Who Is Melissa Butler? Before her appearance on “Shark Tank,” Melissa Butler was a former Wall Street financial analyst who...

Nimay Ndolo’s road to success in the creator industry took a lot of work and determination. Before her pivot into content creation, the Nigerian-American delivered food in a 2004 manual transmission car (stick shift) with no air conditioning (AC) for an entire summer in Atlanta, GA . On Ndolo’s delivery route, she would often deliver to people working in skyscrapers — AC there thankfully was blasting. Escaping the blistering heat ultimately freed her from the shackles of being “a starving artist,” she says. “I used my Postmates bag to sneak into a startup for a software company,” Ndolo recalled to AFROTECH™. “I ended up taking them donuts and my resume. I got an interview and didn’t get the job, but I ended up at a freight brokerage.” Even though Ndolo was able to secure a more stable job, she shared that after nearly a year, she was fired from the position six days before Christmas. However, being let go allowed her to go back to the drawing board, which, she says, reminded her of...

The Gathering Spot, a members-only co-work space and networking hub, has tapped Houston, TX, as the location for its next club. Founded in 2016, The Gathering Spot (TGS) opened its doors in Atlanta, GA, before adding locations in Washington, D.C., in 2021, and Los Angeles, CA, in 2022. Per its website, Houston is one of TGS’s “connected cities” along with Chicago, IL; New York, NY; Detroit, MI; and Charlotte, NC. These cities are “curated communities that serve as hubs for collaboration” where the company anticipates potentially building future clubs . According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Co-founder and CEO Ryan Wilson spent significant time in each of these connected cities before he and his team singled out Houston as “the next best opportunity for us as a community.” Through his visits, the city drew parallels to Atlanta’s blend of big and small businesses. Regarding the investment, Wilson discussed his confidence in Houston’s potential for company growth. “We’re...

Three Black women are on a mission to uplift food entrepreneurs in Dayton, OH. In March 2024, Jamaica White, Dabriah Rice, and Charlynda Scales celebrated the soft opening of their nearly five-year passion project, the 6888 (pronounced “six triple eight”) Kitchen Incubator Project. According to a press release, it serves as a business incubator that will support food entrepreneurs through a commercial kitchen, training, and business — including ingredient sourcing, marketing and distribution, and access to capital services. This initiative serves as an extension of the endeavors of their nonprofit organization, OH Taste Foundation. “We’ve been working on this for four and a half years now, and we’re just excited to be able to open up this project and offer these resources to our food entrepreneurs here in the Dayton area,” Rice said, Dayton Daily News reports. The need for the 6888 Kitchen Incubator Project became evident during the pandemic. Rice, who serves as the executive...

James Moss created his first wine alongside his wife for their wedding. Today, the couple have built a family-owned business that is among the “less than 1% of the 11,500 wineries across the U.S. are Black-owned,” according to Napa Valley Register. Call it a match made in business as the couple connected during a time when Moss’s now-wife Janet worked at Domaine Carneros while obtaining her winemaking degree. They had an instant connection that would lead them to move in together and eventually say their “I Do’s” with their wine to celebrate. “I asked her, ‘Hey, let’s just make some wine in the garage,’” Moss told Napa Valley Register. “And it came out great. It was Merlot. And so we served it at our wedding, and it was a big hit. So I said, ‘Let’s make some commercial wine.’” The wine venture marked a pivot for James, who initially wanted to pursue a sales and marketing career when he moved to California from Texas. James’ career transition would be further affirmed after he...

Being an entrepreneur starts with a vision. But the path towards transforming it into reality is filled with challenges. And to realize that vision isn’t just a matter of technical skill or access to capital. It’s a matter of actively cultivating the internal qualities that will strengthen you as an entrepreneur — traits common to some of the most successful businesspeople. These qualities include: Passion The fuel for your success, your passion will keep you going even when times grow tough. And it will help you get others to buy-in, from investors to team members to customers. Persistence There will be plenty of days when you feel like quitting. But you must keep moving forward, even when it feels like you’re treading water. And while your success may not come when or how you want it, you won’t win at all if you give up. Resourcefulness At times, entrepreneurship may feel synonymous with problem-solving. You’ll need to figure out how to stretch every dollar, solve production...