Showing 15 results for:
derrick-hayes
Popular topics
All results
Former PepsiCo President and entrepreneur Derek Lewis has added another franchise to his portfolio. Lewis secured a deal with Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks, granting him ten locations in Central Florida, AFROTECH™ previously told you. He is also the restaurant’s first franchisee, which Derrick Hayes founded. According to information shared with AFROTECH™, Lewis celebrated the grand opening of two locations at Camping World Stadium in November 2024. “This expansion represents our commitment to bringing authentic Philly-style cheesesteaks to sports and entertainment venues across Florida,” said Derek Lewis in a news release. “We’re creating more than just restaurants; we’re building community gathering spots where food brings people together.” More recently, Lewis partnered with Philly Pretzel Factory and is spearheading its expansion throughout the Orlando area. “Soft pretzels are woven into Philadelphia’s cultural fabric, and I’ve craved their distinctive taste since childhood,” said...
This Philadelphia, PA, native is transforming her e-commerce startup into a new luxury experience. Kadidja Dosso founded the e-commerce shop Dosso Beauty, a clinically tested, hypoallergenic braiding hair company. In an interview with FOX29 Philadelphia, Dosso shared that the company has been a game changer for more than 50,000 women who suffer from allergic reactions from braiding hair due to toxic chemicals. Dosso launched Dosso Beauty in 2018 after experiencing a horrible allergic reaction to braiding hair, along with a history of scalp and skin sensitivity. While Dosso has had six years of success selling Dosso Beauty products on its e-commerce site, Amazon, GoPuff, DoorDash, independent retail stores, and hair salons, she is ready for the next step. In Dosso’s interview with FOX29, she shared her plans to open the company’s first-ever brick-and-mortar store in July 2024 in Philadelphia, PA. She also plans to open a luxury braid salon within the store called The Dosso Beauty...
85-year-old Shirley Smith has fulfilled her academic dreams. Raised on a tobacco farm in Wilmington, NC, Smith eventually had to move to Somerville, NJ, because her father needed to earn more money to support the family of six children after tobacco rates fell, Fox News Digital reports. By this time, Smith had left her academics behind, leading her to fill her time with jobs, including at a dry cleaner and a pocketbook factory. “I was going to the 10th grade, and I told him, the biggest mistake that I made, I think, was telling him that I didn’t want to go to school,” Smith told the outlet. “And he said, ‘Go to work.’” Smith eventually had a family of her own and moved to Georgia. Although she considered vocational school, she never completed her studies as her days were spent caring for her growing family. Still, Smith instilled the importance of education in her home and required her children to finish school if they were to live under her roof. “Matter of fact, they cried to go...
Another win for Derrick Hayes. The Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks founder and CEO has secured a four-year agreement that will scale the business at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, GA. Starting in 2022, he had two portable vendor cart slots placed around the stadium and soon expanded to three. Now, sports fans will be able to visit a brick-and-mortar location in Section 107 of Mercedes-Benz Stadium and enjoy staple items such as signature cheesesteaks, seasoned fries, chicken tenders, and its newest offering, the Fried Chicken Cheesesteak. The new location will replace the carts. “We are thrilled to secure this four-year deal with Mercedes-Benz Stadium, further expanding the reach of Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks,” Hayes said in a news release. “This partnership aligns perfectly with our mission to bring our exceptional food to even more fans and event-goers. We look forward to being a proud sponsor and delivering an unparalleled dining experience at one of the world’s premier sports and...
Money management can be a learning curve for many athletes, and this was the case for Dwyane Wade. Wade was drafted to the league in 2003, which is viewed as “one of the greatest draft classes in NBA history,” the league mentions. LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, and Chris Bosh were also drafted that year. Wade would make his debut with the Miami Heat as the No. 5 overall draft pick, Sports Illustrated reports. He then signed a three-year contract valued at $8.5 million, to The Palm Beach Post. For Wade, being drafted to the league allowed him to overcome the odds that were stacked against him living in the South Side of Chicago, where he would hear gun shots frequently. At one point, he was being raised by his mother who struggled with addiction and would leave him at home for periods of time, according to Business Insider. When he was 9 he eventually moved to a new neighborhood to be with his father, who had divorced his mother. “[My father] was militant,” Wade shared during an...
The Charlotte Hornets are being led by a Black executive team. Following the selling of Michael Jordan’s stake in the team for a reported $3 billion in June 2023 to a group led by Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall, as previously reported by AFROTECH™, it is undergoing new changes in leadership. On March 5, 2024, Jeff Peterson was hired on as the executive vice president of basketball operations, notes the NBA. Before this role, he had been assistant general manager of the Brooklyn Nets. According to a press release, the team cemented a deal with Dotun Akinwale, who has worked in the NBA for 11 years as an executive, to bring him on as assistant general manager. Prior to the title, he had been promoted to vice president of player personnel for the Atlanta Hawks. On May 9, 2024, Charles Lee, who boasts a decade of experience as an NBA assistant coach joined the team as head coach, leaving the Boston Celtics. “We are excited to welcome Charles Lee as the head coach of Charlotte Hornets,”...
Charles Barkley is inspired by students Calcea Johnson and Ne’Kiya Jackson who made history with their mathematics discovery. As previously reported by AFROTECH™, Johnson and Jackson attended St. Mary’s Academy, a Catholic school located in New Orleans, LA, and are responsible for finding a new way to solve the Pythagorean Theorem using trigonometry without circular logic, which had been a mystery for many mathematicians for 2,000 years. WWL-TV 4 reporter Sam Winstrom spoke to the pair in March 2023 about their accomplishment. Per his report, “Calcea and Ne’Kiya explained it to me like this: Basically, trigonometry is based on Pythagoras’ Theorem (A^2 + B^2 = C^2, sound familiar?), so using trigonometry to prove Pythagoras’ Theorem is what’s known as circular logic.” Johnson, who is now a freshman at Louisiana State University, spoke to the university ahead of an interview she and Jackson had with “60 Minutes” on May 5, 2024. Johnson revealed to LSU that their discovery was...
A’ja Wilson does not take the sacrifices of her parents for granted. Growing up, the Las Vegas Aces player credits her dad for encouraging her to practice shots on the court, she tells ESPN. Her father, Roscoe, would make her wear a weighted vest while she scored layups. The South Carolina-born athlete describes this time period as “the hell part” of their relationship, but it also helped to improve her skills. “Left hand, right hand, left hand, right hand,” Roscoe told ESPN. “I’d tell her to always know where her feet should be, don’t bring her hands down below her shoulders. Now, it’s second nature.” A’ja saw her improvement too. “…The heaven part was that as I grew, I started to see my game change. I realized my dad was just being my coach. As I got older and basketball got more serious, I saw that, ‘This man may know some things, A’ja, so I suggest you listen to him.'” Roscoe’s passion for the game was reflected in his own life. While he never made it to the NBA, the former...
Mary J. Blige’s Strength Of A Woman Festival (SOAW) returned for a Mother’s Day takeover in a new city this year, along with new faces and places to support. “We started doing pop-ups at bars, and it was just me and my daughter,” Chef Shelly Flash of 2 Girls & A Cookshop told AFROTECH™ during the third annual SOAW, the festival’s first time appearing in Blige’s home of New York, NY. “We used to get kicked out all the time, and it’s like we just had a mission. We were like, ‘We should share our food with the world because we’re first-gens, and a lot of times first-generation Jamaicans, we’re not represented.’ Either you’re all in the culture or you’re in this melted pot. We are always in this floating melting pot. We live in the best city in the world — that’s New York — and so what we decided to do is just keep putting out one Jamaican taco at a time.” She added, “And in Jamaica, we always say ‘Out of many, one person.’ At 2 Girls we say, ‘Out of many, one culture.’ We believe that...
Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks, founded by Derrick Hayes, is crossing state lines. The restaurant, which was born from Hayes’ interest in cooking while in the kitchen with his grandfather, notes Forbes, has scaled from a 700-square-foot gas station in Dunwoody, GA, to multiple locations across Atlanta, GA, including the Mercedes-Benz Stadium. In 2023, Hayes’ had cemented a deal that pivoted the business to a franchise model allowing the restaurant to further capitalize off its success. By doing so, 10 restaurants are already set to form across central Florida as former PepsiCo executive Derek Lewis signed a franchise agreement with Hayes in January 2024, as AFROTECH™ previously reported. Now, Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks is poised for even further growth in light of its newest establishment opening at 8552 University City Blvd., Charlotte, NC 28213, its first out-of-state location, according to a press release provided to AFROTECH™. “From a humble gas station start to expanding across state...
The Chicago Sky team are already reaping the benefits of Angel Reese’s arrival. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, Reese, a current Louisiana State University (LSU) student, was drafted to the WNBA as the 7th draft pick in the first of three rounds on April 15, 2024, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York, NY. She will be joined on the team by recent National Championship winner Kamilla Cardoso from South Carolina. “It’s a great moment. I’m super excited to go into the W,” Reese, 21, said in reflection during an interview on the “Today” show. “This has always been a dream for me and a dream come true. And then with amazing girls, only 15 girls get to be selected to come to New York and have this experience. And as a little girl, being able to put the dress on and actually go up there and hear a name called was amazing. So I’m just happy to be here and enjoy the moment.” Reese’s entry into the league is already being met with excitement. Within days of being drafted, the team’s...
Encouraged by rap-artist -turned-businessman Bun B, Derrick Turton elevated his interest in cooking. Turton, who was born in Brooklyn, NY, moved to Miami, FL, in 1998 and enrolled in culinary school. Upon graduation, he secured his first job as a line cook at a Red Lobster, according to The New Tropic. However, he disdained his time at the restaurant and made his exit. “I thought I was going to be a ‘Top Chef,’ and I got my first job at Red Lobster,” Turton told the outlet. “It was either Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day, and [orders] were coming out of the register [nonstop]. I was just staring at it, and I was like ‘I’m out.’” He then pivoted, becoming a club promoter, which was his entry into the music scene. As he moved into record label promotion, this put him under the radar of rapper and record executive Luther Campbell, and he began to work for Campbell’s record label, The New Tropic reports. Turton was introduced to Armando Christian Perez, who is widely recognized as...
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...
Felix Lloyd’s company is among the 13 Black businesses to catch the attention of billionaire Mark Cuban during his time as an investor on ABC’s “Shark Tank.” Lloyd is former dean of students at the SEED Public Charter School and was recognized as Washington D.C.’s Teacher of the Year. In 2013, he and his wife, Jordan Lloyd Bookey, Google’s head of K-12 education outreach at the time, were inspired to create Zoobean. Initially introduced as a “book-of-the-month business” to connect families, with a focus on “non-traditional genres and interests,” the platform has since transformed into software catered to libraries and educational settings, the company website reads. It now encompasses features such as summer reading programs, simplified reading records, progress tracking analytics, and the option for users to host fundraising events centered around reading. In 2014, the founders were featured on season five of “Shark Tank” with their original business model. The opportunity to...
A family-owned restaurant in Brooklyn, NY, has received financial gains. Torri Clayton, a Harlem native, is the owner of Cheri’s Bedstuy, a venture that opened in 2019 to pay homage to her family and provide more southern cuisine comfort food in Brooklyn, NY. According to Black-Owned Brooklyn, Clayton collected the recipes her family passed down for generations to begin her own restaurant. The venture required sacrifice and risks. The restaurant owner maxed out her credit cards and took out personal loans to bring Cheri’s Bedstuy to life, “Good Morning America” mentioned. What she now calls a “labor of love” has led to menu items including grilled lamb chops, shrimp scampi, and fried lobster tails to be enjoyed by locals. “A labor of love. It was a dream that was realized,” Clayton expressed during a taping of “Good Morning America.” “It was a surprise to my family and the way that they just rallied, and trusted, and stood behind me to make this happen. I cannot be more thankful to...